Digital Set-top box (hereinafter, STB) and TV are devices for receiving, decoding, and broadcasting digital TV programs. A play station digitalizes, converts, and compresses TV programs in digital AV signal format (hereinafter, AV program) before transmission. A user may watch TV programs through a digital TV or a STB with an analog TV after AV programs are received.
With the improving of technology, bandwidth available for media transmission increases at meanwhile. This implies that AV program providers may provide more real-time information and value-added services. Furthermore, users may operate a digital TV or STB with its user interface (hereinafter, UI) providing multifunction, and interact with program providers through an interactive operation platform.
Varied from the transmission media, conventional digital TV and STB generally receive TV programs from a satellite, a terrestrial, or a network. Among these transmission media, many users are used to watch TV programs in a relatively passive style such as watching programs transmitted by the satellite or the terrestrial. In fact, when the TV programs are transmitted by the satellite or the terrestrial, the schedule of TV programs are predetermined by program providers. In other words, users are not able to decide the time and content of AV programs being transmitted but passively watch AV programs. On the other hand, internet protocol television (hereinafter, IPTV) provides interactive functions, and users may actively select and watch their favorite AV programs. Through IPTV, the approach how users operate STB or digital TV becomes more actively.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the receiving and broadcasting function of an IPTV. A user device may be connected to a digital TV 15 or disposed between a STB 13 and a traditional analog TV 11 so as to communicate with the network 17. Via the network 17, the STB 13 or the digital TV is capable of accessing the AV program database via the service platform of program providers 19. In other words, IPTV provides interactive functions between users and program providers in addition to broadcasting TV programs.
Conventional AV program providers provide same user interfaces for users, and it means that users operate identical interface pages. With the increasing number of AV programs, this operation style results in that every user can watch their preferred AV programs only after complicated operations.
Although IPTV provides interaction functions, it accompanies disadvantages that the users can be easily confused with the complicated UI. Besides, the limited number of keys on remote controllers causes problems for selection and operation while watching TV programs.
In conclusion, conventional IPTV provides various functions for interactive operations, but its complicated operation flow results in operation difficulties for users. As remote controllers are used for selecting AV programs, they are not ideal for complicated operations. Besides, some users do not want to spend too much time in understanding complicated operations in conventional IPTV services. Hence, it is desirable to find a convenient approach for users.